In a conventional Video on Demand (VOD) system, a library of media content is stored at a media server. Users select media content from the library and the selected media content is streamed or downloaded to the user's media receiver. The bandwidth requirements of this type of VOD system are very high, because a point-to-point connection is established to each user, and the instantaneous bandwidth demands of all users must be met. Consumers can also find too many different items of media content on offer daunting and less attractive than a managed choice of the media content.
In conventional media playback systems, such as a personal computer running Windows Media Player or Windows Media Center, a graphical user interface (GUI) can be generated to display a list of all media stored on the computer. The GUI may be configured to display the list of media as categories of media, such as media type or genre, based on metadata associated with the media. Typically, the categorisation is carried out automatically by the system. However, the displayed lists may still be unwieldy because the user may still find too many different items of media within each category.